“Oh, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!” Jeremiah 32:17
I live in a household of boys—three little ones and one bigger one to be exact. And I think it is awesome! Yes, they are loud. Yes, they have more energy than a litter of puppies. Yes, they eat so much I’ve started making multiple trips to the grocery store every week just to keep up with their appetites. And, yes, they’ve even started to smell.
As you might imagine, it’s commonplace in our home to be awakened on a Saturday morning to sounds of Star Wars lightsabers in battle. Before their tummies even get breakfast, the boys arrange their superhero action figures and discuss foolproof plans to defeat the “bad guys” who are attempting to take over the universe. What is it with little boys and superheroes? Scratch that. What is it with both their and my love for superheroes?
Maybe it’s the cool costumes. Maybe it’s the superhero’s ability to triumph over evil and save others from danger. Maybe it’s the good ending to the suspenseful story line of hardship and suffering.
I asked my 7-year-old son the other day why he thought Yoda, Ironman, and Spiderman are some of his favorites. His response, “Mom, they each have special powers and they always defeat the bad guys.”
Hmmm… This got me thinking.
Yes, these superheroes, the ones our kids love so much, each have unique, special powers and strengths. But do you know what else they have? Flaws. They have weaknesses. The superheroes we love can get knocked down and temporarily defeated.
But there is one superhero. The One. The One who is True and Real. The One who is without flaw and without weakness. Rather, He is all-powerful. In fact, He is All-The-Time-Powerful. He is the Lord our God.
Yes, our God is omnipotent.
Wayne Grudem states: “God’s omnipotence means that God is able to do all His holy will. There are no limits on God’s power to do what He decides to do.”
When we look through Scripture, we see evidence of God’s power from Genesis to Revelation.
- God created the heavens and the earth and everything inhabiting them. (Genesis 1–2)
- God sent a flood that covered the entire world, destroying everything in life with the exception of his faithful servant Noah, his family and the creatures aboard the ark. (Genesis 6–9)
- God caused confusion to fall upon those building the Tower of Babel. (Genesis 11)
- God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk across the dry land as they escaped the pursuit by Pharaoh. (Exodus 14)
- God caused the walls of Jericho to tumble down by the sounds of trumpets and shouts from men. (Joshua 6)
- God used the young shepherd boy, David, to defeat the giant, Goliath. (1 Samuel 17)
- God spared Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s lives from being slain by the fiery inferno. (Daniel 3)
- In the Gospels, we see evidence of God’s power through Jesus Christ as He performed miraculous healings, turned water into wine, caused the winds and waves to obey His voice, fed thousands of people from a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
- God’s power is seen through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- May our hearts and souls rejoice knowing that by and through God’s power, there will be a day when Jesus Christ returns to you and me—His people. (Revelation)
So, because God is all-powerful, omnipotent, and will bring about His holy will, what does this mean for us? How does God’s omnipotence affect our daily lives?
Well, first, a belief that God is all-powerful should produce an unshakable hope in our lives. Hope in the eternal. Hope in the unseen. Hope that there is more than just this life here on earth. Hope that in His power, Jesus will be returning for His people. Hope that God will, in fact, one day carry out His holy will through the creation of a new heaven and a new earth where we will live in the presence of our holy, powerful God as He intended from before the beginning of time.
Secondly, a belief that God is all-powerful should lead each one of us to place deeper trust in the Lord as displayed through the surrendering of our lives. Surrendering the big, the small, the mundane, the extraordinary, the devastating, and the joyful details of our lives. After all, He is able to meet our every need.
Through God’s infinite power, He created the universe. Through His infinite power, the Lord raised Jesus up from the grave. Thus, God is also powerful enough to use the circumstances of our lives as a means by which we are sanctified, producing within our souls a deeper and richer worship and dependence upon Him.
Yes, God is all-powerful and a keeper of His promises. All of them. From Genesis to Revelation. The day is approaching when we will look into the face of our all-powerful God and tell Him that He was worth the journey.
Next time one of my boys asks me who my favorite superhero is, you better believe I’m going to say the all-powerful, the undefeatable, the conquering, omnipotent God!
May He be your true superhero, too.
Julie Manning is a wife to her beloved husband, John, mother of three fun-loving boys, and pediatric nurse practitioner. At the age of twenty-five, Julie left her career in corporate America to pursue a degree in nursing. While in nursing school, the Lord birthed a passion within Julie to care for children with heart disease. Little did she know seven years later, she would learn that her own heart was sick. The Lord’s pursuit of Julie’s heart and soul through the valley of facing many uncertainties has developed a fire within her to live intentionally from moment to moment as it may be her last. Read more of her story in her book, My Heart.
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